If you are working on social impact and social justice this is a newsletter to energise your journey - sign up by adding your email below
Don't wait for the vulnerable conversation ππΎπ±
|
Dear community Last weekend I experienced a deep meditation and visualisation with my mentor over a three-hour period. I connected with my dad, who, as many of you know, passed in 2009. I spoke about how much I respected his tenacity to keep going, to study and work, and his deep thirst for knowledge. His choice to place education over religion as our way out of inner-city Birmingham. How much I loved that he studied Persian, and how I wish right now we could sit together and talk about Rumiβs work in the original language. He was a poet in his heart. We spoke about what love really means, including the different Persian words for βlove.β We spoke about moments where I felt I had made, at the time, a huge mistake and how he held me with compassion. I held the memory of him graduating. But most of my (re)connection with him was anger and frustration. Three memories were very present. A moment I was scared and wanted to tell him. A moment when I was so proud of what I was doing but was not held. A moment when I wanted to be seen by him. I also hold empathy. Just like me now, in my forties, there must have been a thousand things on his mind. The racism of the day he must have faced. The logistics. The money side of life. Parenting a neurodiverse son mustn't have been easy! π€£ I was even more angry that he did not talk to me about how he was really feeling when I was young. I had no idea what was going on for him. The anger and frustration have not left. I still feel them. Even as I write, I want to talk to him about Freud, Paulo Freire, Fidel's 100 year anniversary, parenting! I feel it in my stomach. But I felt like you and I were on different planets at times. Why did it feel like we were just surviving? At the same time, I fear if I was able to talk to him right now, how would he feel about my life? Knowing where he started as a refugee, a migrant, a teacher.. Ooof, that makes me want to hide under the bed. I wish I had been conscious enough to have had these conversations with him when I was an adult. I cannot now. But I can learn. To not shy away from vulnerable conversations. I see fear, the anger, the longing all as signs that I can use this energy to be more vulnerable and more brave about what is really going on inside me. I see them all as signs to carry on conversations with others and, if not especially, my son. To not postpone truth. To not hide what matters. Community I invite you to do the same. Do not wait for the vulnerable conversation you have been putting off. Do not wait 16 years. Have the conversation to speak your truth but also truly listen to the other, giving yourself spaciousness to reframe your thoughts. Do this with your body and mind aligned - you know what this feels like to have them aligned (your body doesn't want to run awayππΎππΎββοΈππΎββοΈ) You will regret not choosing this bravery. If you have fear about the conversation - I'll support you - https://calendly.com/mo-belonging-people/connectβ Events, email me π¦ Emerging 1,000 for the Next Generation of Leaders - Summary week 2β π§πΎββοΈ Men in Social Impact Circle - 12 Feb - Previous circle recapβ βπ₯ PROJECT 10βΉ, 1 Billion Voices - 3 March facilitator session - Message about democratising justiceβ βπΈ CEO Rockstar Group - 12 Feb - Email me for what goes on there. I'm always up for a conversation - that's how change happens. Music Rise in our Roots programme playlist
|
Mohammed Ali (The Innovation)
If you are working on social impact and social justice this is a newsletter to energise your journey - sign up by adding your email below
Dear community I long for a just community.I long for tough conversations held with love and connection.I long for us working together for a better future, for ourselves and for generations to come.I long for a society where ancestral wisdom is welcomed everywhere. Where queer is normal.Where we take on our unlearning and grow together.Where we can sit in difficult conversations with loving awareness. A place where we loosen the grip of money, and hold a vision of something new. I feel a...
Dear community, I keep hearing about grief and sadness, but also courage and love. I keep hearing about many of us going back to old patterns we thought we had already worked through. I keep seeing this in sectoral meetings too. So what is it like to be you right now in a world of turmoil? I would love to know. Email me. For me, here is what it is like beyond the square Zoom screen. I am working through my ancestral trauma, wanting to me the final iteration of the violence of the past and not...
Dear community Thank you for all the beautiful conversations this week during one-to-ones and PROJECT 10βΉ. PROJECT 10βΉ will be going to locations this spring and summer. Aberdeen on 9 August, Green Earth Awakening on 11 September, and Bristol with a date to be confirmed. ππ±ππΎ Grief, knowledge and the courage to stay open We are all consuming more grief. The grief of humanity. Personal grief of things happening at home. The cruelty we are witnessing around the world. What I am noticing is that...